the Last
by Miss Lunabelle
Summary: Have you ever wondered how a Knowledge Seeker is born? This is the story of the last on to be born before the Avatar visited.


She traveled in a Sandbender's uniform in one of their sand-sailors but she was not a Sandbender. She traveled with the curse of a Firebender. It wasn't the Fire Nation part that bothered her, though. It was being a destroyer of things she couldn't bear.

She closely eyed the map and called out to one of the Sandbenders, "Kuan-yin are you sure we're on the right course?" Her voice was rough and calloused and sounded scarcely used.

"Stop worrying," the man tried to soothe her. "We know what we're doing; you can trust us."

She fell silent once more and though some of the others tried to meet her eyes, she stared at the fastly moving ground.

In a few hours the miles of endless desert broke. A tower jutted awkwardly from the sand,

"This is it," She told them. She stood breathless before the tower. This was the place she'd read about and dreamed of going to. Her eyes fumbled to take in as much detail as possible. This wasn't something she wanted to ever forget.

Then she turned to Kuan-yin. "Just leave me here." He looked uneasily at her and opened his mouth but before he could speak he was cut off by her confident smirk. "Don't worry. I'll be fine. After all this is all I've ever wanted."

But she worried as she began to climb the slippery tower. If only she were an Earthbender! This would be so much simpler. _Oh, but good things are worth the struggle,_ she reminded herself gently. Her muscles ached like Prometheus. And still she moved along, stabbing her dagger into the tower's side and pulling herself up, inch by inch. By sundown she was barely halfway there. "I won't give up," She choked before continuing her battle up.

Finally, well it must have been near four o'clock in the morning by the time her battered body slid into the library.

"Who are you?" A great echo demanded. She looked around, brushing the black hair from her eyes, as she tried to locate the speaker.

A gigantus shadow fluttered towards her, landing centimeters from where she lay. "What is your purpose?" He demanded. All the ache forgotten, she scuttled to her feet and curtsied. "Wan Shi Tong! I can not begin to tell her what and honor-"

"Your name and purpose, girl."

Her voice was soft and out-of-breath. "My name is Yu Ning, I-I came from the Fire Nation. My only desire is to learn."

"Lies! Man only seeks to destroy." He scoffed at her.

"Please, I only seek to learn from you."

He bore into her soul for a long while.

"Oh-here," She opened her satchel, emptying it of three books. "A catalogue of my personal family history." She bowed real low and held it out to him. It was swept under his wing. "A book of children's rhymes." She held up the second for him to sweep under his wing. "And lastly, a map of the Fire Nation." He swept it under his wing.

"They will do."

She looked at him with hopeful eyes.

"Do you truly wish to learn?" He asked. She nodded. "So much that you will leave behind everything you know?" He challenged.

She blanched. "I'm not sure I know what you mean."

"Did you think you could stay for free? That I wouldn't ask anything of you? If you truly desire knowledge, with no other motive, prove it! Relinquish your human form. Cast it away like the garbage it is," He turned his back to her. "Perhaps your courage is failing you? Will you become one of my Knowledge Seekers? I do not offer this lightly. It has been over five hundred years since I last offered this gift. Choose wisely.

For her, I wish I could say it was a simple, right away sort of decision, but it wasn't. She just wasn't sure if she could stay forever.

"It's a big commitment." Her voice cracked as she reasoned. "Could I have time?"

It made him angry, her words. He snorted, "People have made bigger choices than this in shorter amounts of time. Hurry up."

What if she said no? If she turned her back on this, well she would die. The Sandbenders were long gone. She'd never see her family. But that didn't bother her as much as it should. She just wasn't sure what she wanted. The obvious, logical choice was to stay and be alive. But what if that was the wrong choice. She looked up at him.

"Too late. You get no choice." His massive wing swept over her, erasing the human Yu Ning. In spirit, she was still there, though more fox like than before and stood on four paws instead of two feet.

"Say goodbye to your human life. You are a Knowledge Seeker now."


End file.
